People's Association lifts restrictions on sites

The Workers' Party has accused the HDB of abusing its power and of being politically-motivated. (Yahoo! file p …

UPDATE

In a major about-shift, the People's
Association has lifted restrictions on who residents can invite to events held on public sites leased by the Association.

However, these activities have to be "non-political" in nature and that they have to be organised by "non-grassroots organisations".

The liberalising of rules, announced in a joint Ministry of National Development-PA statement on Tuesday night, is the latest twist in a public debate over the use of open spaces in Aljunied GRC, which is under the Workers' Party (WP).

Residents said they withdrew their invitation to him because
the Paya Lebar Citizens' Consultative Committee (CCC) told organisers that, as a
condition to getting approval for the venue, they could not invite
their MP.

On Monday, WP chairman Sylvia Lim joined in the fray and said those who applied to the CCC for permits were "told verbally
that they could not invite the elected WP MP or they would risk their
applications being turned down in subsequent years".

"Residents
have told us that they are confused by the new requirements of the CCC
and annoyed by the intense politicking by the PA grassroots
organizations. They felt torn and in an emotional dilemma," she said.

On its part, in its statement on Tuesday night, the MND and PA also said there had been times when organisers of grassroots events at open spaces under the Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC) had been told they were expected to invite the WP MP.

"It was only on Aug 19 that the chairman of AHTC stated publicly that the town council would not impose any condition on whom organisers could invite," they said. the chairman of AHTC is Sylvia Lim.

"PA welcomes this new position of AHTC, and is likewise lifting its current restriction on invitees for events organised by non-GROs on sites leased by PA from HDB, as long as they are of a non-political nature."

Earlier this week, Lim said that the HDB had informed the WP-led Aljunied-Hougang Town Council in
June that 26 commonly-used sites were to be excluded from the town council's
management.

These sites were previously managed by the former Aljunied Town Council, run
by People's
Action Party (PAP) MPs. "No background nor rationale was given for the
decision," said Lim.

After repeated queries by the town council, HDB responded last
month that these sites had been leased to the People's
Association (PA) in May and June 2011.

Attempts to explore the joint use of the sites with PA did not succeed. This
month, PA "indicated that 'booking by WP will not be allowed'," said Lim.

"We
were puzzled about the intention behind the move, which occurred before the new
management took over the estate. We are left to conclude that the decision by
the HDB to shift management of these common properties from the Town Council to
the PA was precipitated by the victory of the Workers' Party in Aljunied GRC in
the General Elections," she said.

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